A Moment of Silence
Groggily, Yorick Morack opens his eyes. He finds himself in a small thatched hut. One of the aliens from earlier seems to be tending to Yorick's wounds. Confused, he pushes the alien away who retreats to the corner, giving Yorick a wide berth. Seeing his equipment in the corner of the hut, he suits up and leaves the hut. Several other huts, built into the treetops, are connected by small bridges. More of the alien creatures watch Yorick carefully as he heads towards the largest and most central hut. Inside, he finds the alien matriarch: a large female with a colorful feathered headdress. Gorging herself at the feast laid out in the center of the room, and flanked by two servants, the matriarch is pleased to see him, and motions for him to partake in the food. In the corner of the room Yorick sees his comrades unconscious, tied to stakes. With difficulty, some communication is managed between Yorick and the alien matriarch. Yorick gathers that he is a welcome guest, but the queen threatens him when he tries to free his friends. It seems the queen intends to take him and the prisoners to a nearby mountain in the morning. Yorick uses a telescope to spot the remains of a crashed ship in the mountains... That night, with the queen deep in her food coma, Grey-eye Deadtalker breaks free of his bonds, releases his colleagues and they meet up with Yorick. Before the creatures awaken, the party head for the mountain hoping to beat them there. Exhausted by a full day's travel through the thick overgrowth, they stop to sleep overnight at the base of the mountain. In the morning they continue and find the crashed ship, wedged between two peaks. Unfortunately the aliens have beat them there, and await at the entrance to the ship. The party attempts to sneak around the back, but are spotted! With two of the creatures in chase, they make for the ship and easily outrun the clumsy creatures. On the ship, they explore the captain's quarters, where the skeletal remains of a gnome lay sprawled against the captain's chair. On the desk and floor before him seem to be a collection of offerings, seashells, crafts, etc. He wears two rings and a necklace each set with a brilliant red gemstone. Octavius Capo Thundertone puts on one of the rings and feels a great calm envelop him. All his worries and troubles flood out of him only taking a little bit of his mind with it. Hearing the footsteps of the aliens drawing nearer, the party head deeper into the ship. In the hold, they find crates full of the red gemstone, guarded by two Grey Gluttons: artificial creatures designed for the specific task of defeating psionic creatures. The gluttons seem uninterested in the party, but attack viciously when the psionic aliens enter, easily defeating them. The party notice that Octavius has been acting strangely since he put on the ring, and carefully examine the gemstones. They discover that the Mind-Blank Gemstone's effects are twofold: although they provide significant protection from psionic attack, they do so by blanking out the mind of the wearer, potentially causing long term harm. They try to convince Octavius to remove the ring, but he's quite content with the feeling of peace he's discovered and refuses. Yorick Morack wrestles Octavius to the ground and forces him to remove the ring. They return to the captain's quarters and search for answers. They root through the captain's desk and read from his journal. The journal tells of the captain receiving a tip that a psionic-resistant gem could be found on Castrovel, and planned to make quite a profit selling it. He learned of the psionic inhabitants and commissioned the Grey gluttons to protect him. However, his ship was damaged and crashed. Species 001, finding for the first time something not only able to resist their psionic attacks, but flanked by twin beasts tailor made to defeat them, think they've found some vengeful deity and bring offerings and sacrifices to the captain, as they intended to do with Octavius and Grey-eye Deadtalker.Yorick Morack, gnomish as was the stranded captain, was seen as the return or a messenger of this deity and treated appropriately. The captain's journal entries descend into gibberish and madness as the effects of the gemstone ravage his mind. The party leave the ship, encountering the queen on the way out. Seeing her failure to appease the angry god that is Yorick, she falls to her knees and begs mercy. Our heroes return to their ship, eager to escape, but discover their crew is nowhere to be found. They follow a mass of tracks leading away from the ship to discover their ragtag crew, worrying for the parties safety, pushed into the forest to search for them. They came across the alien village, and, well, one thing lead to another.. you know how it with orcs. The Ugslash Tribe's bloody trail across the galaxy continues. Next Episode: The Most Toys (Part 1) Category:Session Summary